Prope Ltd. (株式会社プロペ, ''Kabushiki-gaisha Purope'') is a Japanese video game developer founded in 2006 by

Yuji Naka , credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game designer and programmer. He is the co-creator of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and was the president of Sonic Team at Sega until his departure in 2006. Naka joined Sega in 1984 and w ...

, formerly of

Sonic Team , doing business as , is a Japanese video game developer owned by Sega. Sonic Team is best known for its ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights into Dreams'' and '' Phantasy Star Online''. The initial team, formed in 1990, c ...

, and located in Tokyo. Its name means "near" or "beside" in Latin.

Formation

As part of

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

's "support program for independent game creators", Yuji Naka left Sega to start his own studio, along with ten Sonic Team members. It had a

starting capital Financial capital (also simply known as capital or equity in finance, accounting and economics) is any economic resource measured in terms of money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or to provide ...

of ¥10 million, 10% of which came from Sega in exchange for the

right of first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...

for publishing his studio's games. Prope was founded on May 23, 2006 and began operations one week later, on June 1. Prope intended to create games with a graphical style that appealed to both children and adults, and to explore the possibilities of developing both 3D and 2D games. Naka joined

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

in January 2018, leaving the status of Prope uncertain. In March 2019, Naka confirmed that Prope had been reduced to a one-person company since the end of April 2017. Naka released ''SHOT2048'' under the Prope brand in December 2021, his first game following his departure from Square Enix back in April.

Games

Previously, the studio had been consistently linked with a sequel to '' Nights into Dreams...'', though '' Nights: Journey of Dreams'' was ultimately developed by Sega Studio USA. Naka has claimed in an interview that he presently has no intention to revisit any of his former Sega properties. Prope's first two titles, the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

Let's Tap ''Let's Tap'' is a video game developed by Yuji Naka's studio Prope and published by Sega for the Wii console. Along with ''Let's Catch'', ''Let's Tap'' was the first game from Prope to be announced. Owners of ''Let's Tap'' can unlock content in ...

'', and the

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

game ''

Let's Catch ''Let's Catch'' is a video game developed by Prope and published by Sega for the Wii console. It was released as a downloadable WiiWare game in Japan in December 2008 and worldwide in June 2009. Essentially a virtual game of catch, ''Let's Cat ...

'', were both released in December 2008. Both games were published by Sega. After a series of simplistic iOS games such as ''

10 Count Boxer Prope Ltd. (株式会社プロペ, ''Kabushiki-gaisha Purope'') is a Japanese video game developer founded in 2006 by Yuji Naka, formerly of Sonic Team, and located in Tokyo. Its name means "near" or "beside" in Latin. Formation As part of Seg ...

'' and '' Fluffy Bear'', under the iPrope label, Prope's next major game ''

Ivy the Kiwi? is a platform video game developed by Prope and designed by Yuji Naka. The Windows Mobile version was released in Japan in November 2009 and in North America in January 2010. That same year, versions for Wii and Nintendo DS were published by Nam ...

'' was released in November 2009 exclusively for

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

, with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

publishing it. In April 2009, it was ported to

and

DSiWare This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 20 ...

and published by

Bandai Namco (commonly known as and formerly Namco Bandai until 2015, also known as Bandai Namco Group,) is a Japanese mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 2005 by the merger of Namco and Bandai. The company specia ...

in Japan,

Xseed Games Marvelous USA Inc., (formerly Xseed Games), is an American video game company founded in 2004 by former members of Square Enix USA with the goal to localize Japanese games for American market. Xseed Games later became a subsidiary of Japanese ...

in America and

Rising Star Games Rising Star Games Limited is a British video game publisher based in Hitchin. History Rising Star Games was founded on 10 July 2004 by Martin Defries as a joint venture between Bergsala Holding and Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment ...

in Europe as Prope's parent company Sega refused to publish the game and

decided not to publish the game outside Asia. In 2010, an expanded physical release (in contrast to a digital one) was released for

and

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

, featuring 50 levels (whereas the downloadable version featured 25) as well as original backgrounds and music for each level. In 2011, Prope released ''Real Ski Jump'', which, as of 2014, had been downloaded 4 million times.

iOS/Android

''Published under the iPrope and aPrope label respectively'' * ''

'' (2009) * ''10 Count Boxer'' (2009) * ''Fluffy Bear'' (2009) * ''Just Half'' (2010) * ''PD -prope discoverer-'' (2011) * ''Real Ski Jump HD'' * ''Get the Time'' (2011) * ''Past Camera'' (2011) (photography app - not a video game) * ''Power of Coin'' (2011) * ''Nine Dungeon'' (2011) * ''Real Animals HD'' (2011) * ''Flick Pig'' (2011) * ''Real SkiJump Battle'' (2012) * ''

'' (2012) * ''Buddy Monster'' (2012) * ''Real Whales'' (2013) * ''E-Anbai Just Right'' (2014) * ''Samurai Santaro'' (2014) * ''Kodama'' (2015) * ''Real Whales'' (2015) * ''Shock Maze VR'' (2015) * ''Crazy Open Car'' (2016) * ''God & the Bell Kitty'' (2016) * ''10 Battle'' (2016) * ''Pirates of Coin'' (2016) * ''Kizumon'' (2017) * ''Shot2048'' (2021)